I Lied

Last night Haley and I went to her confirmation class at church.  Pastor has been gone for a while and the class was taught by an interim Pastor during that time.  It was nice to have him back.

When we walked in he asked Haley if she had any horses in her purse. He remembered that she usually carries horses with her.  I knew that she didn't have any horses in there so I told her to show him what she did have.

She pulled out the "80," the tractor that her Grandma and Grandpa gave her for Christmas.  Then she pulled out the Daylight and it's Tender and hooked them up.  He asked her if she had gotten them for Christmas.  I laughed and had to tell him the story of how I Blew It.

He asked if it was a special engine.

I went in to a very detailed description of the engine and why it was special to Haley.

"The Daylight is a steam engine that was built in 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works.  It pulled the Southern Pacific "Daylight" coaches from Los Angeles to San Francisco until 1955 when it was decommissioned.  It was displayed at Oaks Park in 1958.  In 1974 it was fixed up and painted red, white and blue and ran again for America's Bicentennial pulling the Freedom Train.  After 9/11 it was painted that same way again, but it is normally red and orange and black.  It is housed down in Portland and they use it to run special excursions now and then.  We just rode behind it at Christmas time for the Holiday Express.  Haley likes all trains, but this engine is her favorite."

I turned to Haley and said "It is scary how much I know about that engine."

Pastor agreed that I really did seem to know a lot.

We talked about other trains in the the area, including the steam engine at the Zoo.  One of the boys in the class asked me if I knew about a couple of other engines that he had seen around and about some tracks near where he lives.  I told him I didn't know, but I would find out for him.

Pastor went around the table and asked all of the kids about their Christmas vacations and then he said we were going to play a game so that we could get to know each other better.  We would each tell two stories.  One would something that happened to us and one would be made up and then we would all choose which we thought was true.

When it came around to Haley I told her stories.

First I said "When Haley was about three years old she fell out of bed and broke her collarbone."

I looked at Haley, she was quietly dressing and undressing her little Polly Pocket dolls.

Then I said "One time Haley got to ride in the cab of the 4449 and she even got to blow the whistle."

Haley gasped and put her hand up to my face, then she covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.  Then she started "talking." I didn't understand what she said, but from the look on her face it could have been something like: "I did not do that Mom!" or "That would have been so cool, but it is not true!"  None of us understood exactly what she said, but we all got the gist. 

I was caught in a lie.

Everyone agreed that the first story was true and it was.

I will never forget that night.